Week 21

You would not believe your eyes...

...If ten million fireflies lit up the world as you walked back from kiwamurembe! (More on that later)

The Johannesburg MTC at night

Hey everybody!

It's been another week! A pretty good one at that!

We have too many good investigators to talk about in this short E-mail, but I'll just give you guys some Highlights:

Monday's "Dumb adventure with Elder Winn" (As termed by Elder Bratsman):

Monday night I was really thirsty while we were waiting for our Rolex's, so I decided to buy some water. The cheap bottles of water are 500 Shillings (as opposed to 1000), so I went around asking for the "water for 500". After about three tries everyone was sold out! (It's been really hot lately, and Kajjansi is drought stricken) I finally get to this shop that hand's me a brand I've never seen before. It's called "New Life". It was sealed and said purified and filtered on the label, so I accepted.

The Infamous Pot Water

I sit down and pop the bottle open. I take a great big drink. Suddenly, I'm like, "Whoah what's wrong with this water... It tastes weird". It was sealed and the water seemed fine otherwise. I had Elder Bratsman try it to see if he could figure it out... nope.

I further checked the bottle and read "Multi-Barrier Filtered", "Ozonated and UV Treated"... Everything seems normal so far! It just doesn't make sense! Then the full name of the water brand began to make sense: It was really called "New Life Pot Water"! Like real Pot! I read the fine print: "New Life Pot Water is purified and filtered with real African Smoke Taste with maximum hygiene and high quality water. Safe for drinking."

Real African Smoke Taste! Elder Bratsman and I start Dying Laughing! We couldn't believe it!

We were walking home from Kiwamurembe (A bit off our usual beaten path) late at night. The path goes through a swampy area where they make bricks. We heard a weird clattering sound that reminded us of clanking glass. We were trying to figure out what it was. We turned the corner and to our amazement we saw fireflies all around us! It was the most surreal thing I've ever seen. They were flying around flashing yellow streaks, we could not believe our eyes! That old Owl City song that everybody knows and loves (or despises) finally made sense! Probably one of the coolest sights of my life! On the way home we also saw a glowing caterpillar! 

Anyway, now that I've told the important stories, I am running out of time. The work is going well here in Kajjansi, and I love being a missionary! I look forward to hearing from you guys next week!

I know everything's chaotic these days, but stay strong and stay safe! I love yu guys!

-Elder Winn

Me with President and Sister Ashton.
For some reason I look a bit goofy
 in the picture... but I like it.

Excerpt from Elder Bratsman's Blog

Animal adventure:  We found another mouse.  Elder Winn saw it the night before, it was pilfering his suitcases.  Friday night, Elder Winn goes "AH" (kinda like I did) and the mouse races behind this one door.  Elder Winn  jumps up and grabs the broom, like an angry-mob-kind-of-dude with their pitchforks, except it's a broom.  He opens the door, the mouse is racing all over, by the table, Elder Winn smacks it around a few times, it runs between my legs, I run out of the way, it runs in our slides by the shower, Elder Winn pins it against the wall.  He pushed really hard on the broom, after a while he released the pressure, and the mouse was dead.  So we killed the first mouse with subtlety and traps and deceit, and the second one was straight up war.  It's war at this point - it's on.  Elder Winn is the champion of the humans, and we defeated the champion of the mice.  We haven't seen one since.  We struck fear in their little mouse hearts. :)

 Sister Ashton (The MTC President's Wife)
Loved giving me South African Kit-Kats.
 Apparently she really likes Bass voices.